Green Lentil Salad with Parsley and Fresh Mint- Mercimek Piyazı

I asked TT what exactly piyaz means as my concept of piyaz is the white beans/fasulye with hard-boiled egg, onion, a little parsley, and tomato. It’s a national favourite often served withkuru köfte. He said that to any Turk, this is what it means.

But here we have another piyaz, this time the main ingredient is green lentils or mercimek! TT scoffed and said it was a bastardization of the real thing!

Green lentil salad or mercimek piyazı

What do I know? I know that I love lentils and have been using them in salads for ages not knowing there is a Real Recipe out there for MercimekPiyazı which I stumbled upon in Özcan Ozan‘s The Sultan’s Kitchen.

Now, lentils are not really allowed on our Dukan but we have been getting a little bored with all that yogurt and protein so I thought this piyaz would perk us up.

Well, it did the trick. It’s delicious, healthy and easy to make. All you have to remember is to wash and soak your lentils overnight in cold water (which is something the recipe doesn’t actually say: it definitely aids digestion if you do this). It looks good too: don’t put this salad in a bowl but rather spoon it onto a shallow dish, Turkish-style and you will see how appetizing it looks!

The ingredients are: green lentils with spring onions, tomatoes, garlic, parsley, mint, seasoned with ground cumin, flaked red pepper and salt and pepper. The dressing includes both vinegar as in the bean piyaz AND also lemon juice with olive oil. (Turkish salads usually use only lemon juice).

lovely greens to add to the piyaz

Below are the amounts as given in Özcan’s recipe but frankly, I suggest you add however much of each as you like according to how you like it. Nothing dire will happen if you increase any of these ingredients. I myself increased the garlic, parsley and mint. Next time I will increase the amount of cumin and flaked red pepper, especially the cumin as it goes so well with lentils. Try it in lentil soup too.

1 bunch spring onions/taze soğan, trimmed and finely chopped, some green parts included (1/2 cup) In Turkey, I would say about 6 of them would be fine.

2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and finely diced (1 cup)

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley/maydonoz

4 sprigs fresh mint leaves, finely chopped/nane

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin/kimyon

1/2 tsp flaked red pepper/pul biber

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil/sızma zeytinyağı

2tbsp white wine vinegar/beyaz üzüm sirkesi

2 tbsp lemon juice/limon suyu

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Drain the lentils, rinse and place in a saucepan with 2 1/2 cups cold water.

Bring to the boil, then lower the heat, cover, and simmer for about 35 minutes or until lentils are tender.

Don’t overcook as the lentils will disintegrate!

Place lentils in a large bowl. Add all the remaining ingredients. Season with salt and pepper and toss well. Cover and set aside. Serve at room temperature.

having added the seasonings and spices while still warm

Tip: Add the seasonings and spices while the lentils are still warm so they will absorb the full flavour. Only add the greenery when you are more or less ready to eat as in my experience if you add them too early, they become soggy and uninteresting.

Thanks for the brilliant idea, Claudia. It's funny, but since we moved to Turkey, I only experience lentils in mercimek çorbası but in the U.S., I made lentil salads all the time – and you reminded me and included a great recipe as well. I agree with Joy – taze garlic would be a special addition.